Helpful Score: 1
A hefty tome of short stories, not all of them of the horror genre. I was surprised at the science fiction aspects of many of the stories. The first story, The Mist, was quite good and will be adapted as a movie in late 2007.
Helpful Score: 1
A wonderful collection of Stephen King's short stories from the early 80s. Favorites are The Mist, The Raft, and Survivor Type.............he never fails to keep me awake at night, long after the lights are out!
Helpful Score: 1
Amazon.com
In the introduction to Skeleton Crew (1985), his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about getting arrested one time when he was "suffused with the sort of towering, righteous rage that only drunk undergraduates can feel." He winds up with an invitation to a scary voyage: "Grab onto my arm now. Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way."
And he sure does. Skeleton Crew contains a superb short novel ("The Mist") that alone is worth the price of admission, plus two forgettable poems and 20 short stories on such themes as an evil toy monkey, a human-eating water slick, a machine that avenges murder, and unnatural creatures that inhabit the thick woods near Castle Rock, Maine. The short tales range from simply enjoyable to surprisingly good.
In addition to "The Mist," the real standout is "The Reach," a beautifully subtle story about a great-grandmother who was born on a small island off the coast of Maine and has lived there her whole life. She has never been across "the Reach," the body of water between island and mainland. This is the story that King fans give to their friends who don't read horror in order to show them how literate, how charming a storyteller he can be. Don't miss it. --Fiona Webster
In the introduction to Skeleton Crew (1985), his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about getting arrested one time when he was "suffused with the sort of towering, righteous rage that only drunk undergraduates can feel." He winds up with an invitation to a scary voyage: "Grab onto my arm now. Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way."
And he sure does. Skeleton Crew contains a superb short novel ("The Mist") that alone is worth the price of admission, plus two forgettable poems and 20 short stories on such themes as an evil toy monkey, a human-eating water slick, a machine that avenges murder, and unnatural creatures that inhabit the thick woods near Castle Rock, Maine. The short tales range from simply enjoyable to surprisingly good.
In addition to "The Mist," the real standout is "The Reach," a beautifully subtle story about a great-grandmother who was born on a small island off the coast of Maine and has lived there her whole life. She has never been across "the Reach," the body of water between island and mainland. This is the story that King fans give to their friends who don't read horror in order to show them how literate, how charming a storyteller he can be. Don't miss it. --Fiona Webster
Helpful Score: 1
I remember that this book scared the bejesus out of my when I read it int 8th grad. It wasn't so bad no, but I still had weird dreams a few nights after reading it. LOL I even had to read it between other books because after awhile it would be too much and I'd get to creeped out or spooked from a few of the stories and would need a change of pace.
While reading this, it never fails to amaze me though, that after all the years of reading Stephen King, that's he's one of the few authors that can make me laugh, cry or want to curl up in fetal position and suck my thumb! He's just amazing!
While reading this, it never fails to amaze me though, that after all the years of reading Stephen King, that's he's one of the few authors that can make me laugh, cry or want to curl up in fetal position and suck my thumb! He's just amazing!
